1560: British Policies and the British Context

Cambridge University Press 0521809967 - The Politics of Religion in the Age of Mary, Queen of Scots: The Earl of Argyll and the Struggle for Britain and Ireland Jane E. A. Dawson Excerpt More information PROLOGUE 1560: British policies and the British context On 27 February 1560 in the town of Berwick, on the Anglo-Scottish border, a secret agreement was signed containing a range of unusual and profoundly important clauses. In the first place it constituted a diplomatic revolution. A group of Scots were abandoning their ‘auld alliance’ with France and em- bracing as allies their long-standing enemies, the English. The central purpose of the Treaty of Berwick was to furnish desperately needed English military aid to the Scottish Lords of the Congregation to prevent them being overrun by the French troops of Mary of Guise, Scotland’s regent.1 From a Scottish perspective, the language employed to describe this diplomatic revolution was equally remarkable. Though exchanging one dominant protector for another, the treaty had carefully avoided any threat to Scotland’s indepen- dence, in particular making no mention of England’s imperial claims that had played such a prominent part in previous Tudor incursions across the Border.2 Another unusual feature was that Elizabeth I of England concluded this formal alliance not with a fellow monarch, but rather with those Scots who were fighting against the regent and her daughter, the Scottish queen. In the volatile international situation of spring 1560, aiding rebellious subjects against their lawful rulers was a risky diplomatic gamble for the precarious Elizabethan regime. It also ran counter to all Elizabeth’s political and per- sonal instincts, yet the queen had been persuaded of its necessity by her chief adviser William Cecil, supported by her Privy Council.3 One highly significant aspect of the treaty was tucked away in a fleet- ing reference to the 5th earl of Argyll – one of the leading Lords of the Congregation and the dominant magnate in the West Highlands. He agreed to ‘imploy his force and guid will wher he salbe requyred by the quenis 1 See below pp. 96–101. 2 Dawson, ‘Two Kingdoms or Three?’, 118–20; Dawson, ‘Cecil’, 207–8. 3 For a perceptive study of the formation of English policy during this period, see Alford, Cecil, ch. 2. 1 © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521809967 - The Politics of Religion in the Age of Mary, Queen of Scots: The Earl of Argyll and the Struggle for Britain and Ireland Jane E. A. Dawson Excerpt More information 2 Prologue majestie to reduce the north partis of yrland to the perfyt obedience of england’.4 This short clause quietly, but completely, reversed English policy in Ireland. At a stroke it replaced England’s hostility towards the presence of Scots there with a welcome for Scottish Gaels as valued, subsidised allies. The explicit link between Anglo-Scottish friendship and the Tudor sub- jugation of Ulster signalled a new departure for both the Scots and the English. The diplomatic revolution and the novel Irish strategy were the obvious signs of a dramatic change in relations between the three kingdoms. They were products of a remarkable new three-sided approach, which embraced Ireland as well as Scotland and England, and heralded a new era of ‘British politics’.5 That British dimension flowed from the separate, but complemen- tary, British policies pursued by the 5th earl of Argyll and William Cecil. Both were British politicians, but while the English minister’s claim has been recognised, his Scottish ally’s even greater credentials have been overlooked. Through their joint efforts in the Treaty of Berwick, the triangular approach was for the very first time given official countenance. Such a momentous development was made possible by a series of changes within Europe and, more especially, within the three kingdoms of England, Ireland and Scotland. Together these changes produced a ‘British context’ within which the Berwick treaty could be agreed. The most important shift in the international scene was the signing of the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrˆ esis´ in April 1559, ending the Habsburg–Valois warfare that had dominated European politics since the late fifteenth century. In its wake, the treaty brought peace to Scotland and England, respectively the allies of France and Spain. As a consequence of the peace settlement, European attention was redirected, shifting from the border between France and the Netherlands, the English Channel, and the British mainland, which had been the fo- cal point of the struggle during the 1550s. Preoccupied with their own domestic and international concerns, the last thing either the Spanish or 4 BL Cotton Calig. B 9 fo. 34. This clause was not included in CSPSc, I. 23–4 though it was summarised in CSPFor 1559–60 , 413–5, and see below. 5 Finding an acceptable shorthand geographical description for the countries which formed the UK before the creation of Eire has proved difficult. Whilst accurate, the term ‘Atlantic archipelago’ is rather cumbersome so, for convenience, I have used the following as virtual synonyms: the islands of Britain; these islands; the British Isles, and the adjective, British. Without intending to imply any hidden imperial or other agenda, they describe the kingdoms of Ireland, Scotland, and England and Wales as they existed in the sixteenth century, following the definition of the British Isles in the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘a geographical term for the islands comprising Great Britain and Ireland with all their offshore islands including the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands’. A discussion of some of the ways in which early modern politicians conceptualised these islands can be found in the concluding chapter. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521809967 - The Politics of Religion in the Age of Mary, Queen of Scots: The Earl of Argyll and the Struggle for Britain and Ireland Jane E. A. Dawson Excerpt More information Prologue 3 the French king wanted in 1559–60 was for a British problem to restart the fighting.6 The conclusion of European peace also gave Elizabeth the opportunity to introduce a Protestant ecclesiastical settlement into her realms. One immediate consequence was England’s return to the diplomatic isolation that had followed Henry VIII’s break with Rome. In 1559, it was conceivable that France and Spain, the two leading Catholic powers, might combine against the heretical Elizabethan regime. Although it did not materialise, the fear of a great Catholic conspiracy haunted England’s statesmen for the rest of the reign and dominated their diplomatic outlook. The peace treaty confirmed the English loss to France of Calais, the final trophy of the Lancastrian continental empire. This was a severe psychological blow, with repercussions for England’s defence and for her self-perception. By removing her toehold inside France, it dragged her own southern border into the English Channel. Elizabeth’s realm was now separated by the sea from the continental land mass and had become an island ‘off’ and not ‘of’ Europe. The entire Tudor state was contained within the Atlantic archipelago, which encouraged the development of an insular mentality and redefined England’s defensive needs.7 The new perspective placed particular emphasis upon the remaining land border with Scotland and the sea frontier between the two states, which ran through the North Channel. England’s geographical and political separation from Europe sharply focused attention upon events within the British mainland. In particular it highlighted Anglo-Scottish relations, which had been subject to a num- ber of twists and turns during the first half of the sixteenth century. At the century’s start, the marriage of James IV and Margaret Tudor had failed to end the long-running animosity between the two countries. The possibility of a dynastic alliance re-emerged in the 1540s, when Scotland’s ruler was the child Mary and young Edward was heir, and later king, of England. How- ever, the Scottish choice of a French husband and alliance for their queen led to renewed military confrontation in the ‘Rough Wooing’. The propa- ganda that accompanied the English invasion was based upon the concept of a united, Protestant mainland of Britain. Such notions were even welcomed by some ‘assured Scots’ who, for financial and ideological reasons, supported an alliance with the ‘auld enemy’. 6 M.J. Rodrıguez-Salgado,´ The Changing Face of Empire: Charles V, Philip II and Habsburg Authority, 1551–9 (Cambridge, 1988), ch. 8. 7 The Channel Islands provide the obvious exception, but the point concerns a shift in perception, as demonstrated in contemporary maps, e.g. P. Barber, ‘A Tudor Mystery: Laurence Nowell’s Map of England and Ireland’, Map Collector, 22 (1983), 16–21; Dawson, ‘Cecil’, 197–8. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521809967 - The Politics of Religion in the Age of Mary, Queen of Scots: The Earl of Argyll and the Struggle for Britain and Ireland Jane E. A. Dawson Excerpt More information 4 Prologue Despite the circulation of these British ideas, a union between the two kingdoms was not a serious political option. Instead, for the English the main result of their military campaigns was proof of an unpalatable truth. England could readily defeat the Scots, but could not hold Scotland per- manently by force. Future English policy makers such as Cecil, who had participated personally in the 1548 campaign, concluded that alliance, not conquest, was the best way to eradicate the threat from the north. For the Scots, the long-term consequences of the Rough Wooing were the enduring association between the Scottish Protestant cause and English intervention, and the planting of the conviction that an English alliance could be of benefit for Scotland.8 In 1558, Anglo-Scottish relations were further complicated by two dynastic events.

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